By DANIEL JACKSON and NZPA
WAITANGI - Construction costs for an ablution block at the main Waitangi marae shot up when workers found a cesspit filled with tyres instead of the plumbing and septic tanks shown on plans.
A cabinet paper the Coalition has released shows that an upgrade of Te Tii o Waitangi Marae resulted in debts of $170,000.
It says poor project planning and management and failure to apply stringent controls are some of the reasons for the shortfall.
The Government decided in October to pay the marae's debt using public money, $120,000 of which was from a $324,000 fund earmarked for Waitangi Day celebrations.
The Leader of the Opposition, Jenny Shipley, accused the Coalition on radio yesterday of using the row over the marae upgrade to justify Prime Minister Helen Clark's decision to snub the marae on Waitangi Day.
Helen Clark responded by saying that the ablution block shambles had contributed to the Government's decision not to pay for any commemorations at Waitangi.
"We feel we've paid and paid and paid."
The marae caretaker and project overseer, Adelaide Rameka-Keremenata, said she was upset that the debts were being blamed on poor management of the project.
She said she had consulted Government officials throughout the project, which had been audited numerous times by different departments.
Ms Rameka-Keremenata said the marae had been left with little choice but to go ahead with costly alterations to its kitchen area, laundry and ablutions block after a Far North District Council health inspector threatened to close the marae.
She said $102,000 from the ASB Charitable Trust last year had paid for the upgrade of the laundry, storage and cleaning area at the back of the marae buildings.
The remaining money came from Te Puni Kokiri (the Ministry of Maori Development), the Department of Internal Affairs and the Lottery Grants Board.
Ms Rameka-Keremenata said she told Government officials that there was not enough money but was told to carry on. Costs began to rise when workers found that plans from the district council showing plumbing work supposedly done in 1990 did not correspond with what was found when digging began.
The existing five toilets, eight showers and one urinal were instead draining into a cesspit at the back of the buildings.
Workers removed eight truckloads of tyres used in the cesspit before installing a large septic tank, drains from the laundry and other work needed before enlarging the existing toilets could begin.
"But all the 90s plumbing should have facilitated it."
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